Millimetre-long transport of photogenerated carriers in topological insulators

Hou, Yasen; Wang, Rui; Xiao, Rui; McClintock, Luke; Travaglini, Henry Clark; Francia, John Paulus; Fetsch, Harry; Erten, Onur; Savrasov, Sergey Y.; Wang, Baigeng; Rossi, Antonio; Vishik, Inna; Rotenberg, Eli; Yu, Dong

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13711-3

Title: Millimetre-long transport of photogenerated carriers in topological insulators

Journal Article · 16 December 2019 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13711-3 · OSTI ID:1582362

Hou, Yasen ^[1]; Wang, Rui ^[2]; Xiao, Rui ^[1]; McClintock, Luke ^[1]; Travaglini, Henry Clark ^[1]; Francia, John Paulus ^[1]; Fetsch, Harry ^[3]; Erten, Onur ^[4]; Savrasov, Sergey Y. ^[1]; Wang, Baigeng ^[5]; Rossi, Antonio;

^[1];

^[6];

^[1]

Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA (United States)
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
Nanjing Univ. (China)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)

Excitons are spin integer particles that are predicted to condense into a coherent quantum state at sufficiently low temperature. Here by using photocurrent imaging we report experimental evidence of formation and efficient transport of non-equilibrium excitons in Bi_2-xSb_xSe₃ nanoribbons. The photocurrent distributions are independent of electric field, indicating that photoexcited electrons and holes form excitons. Remarkably, these excitons can transport over hundreds of micrometers along the topological insulator (TI) nanoribbons before recombination at up to 40 K. The macroscopic transport distance, combined with short carrier lifetime obtained from transient photocurrent measurements, indicates an exciton diffusion coefficient at least 36 m² s^-1, which corresponds to a mobility of 6 × 104 m² V^-1 s^-1 at 7 K and is four order of magnitude higher than the value reported for free carriers in TIs. The observation of highly dissipationless exciton transport implies the formation of superfluid-like exciton condensate at the surface of TIs.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1838532; DMR-1710737; DMR-1832728; PHY-1560482

OSTI ID:: 1582362

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Impact of ultrafast transport on the high-energy states of a photoexcited topological insulator Freyse, F.; Battiato, M.; Yashina, L. V. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1809.08156	text	January 2018
Macroscopically ordered state in exciton system Butov, L. V.; Gossard, A. C.; Chemla, D. S. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0204482	text	January 2002

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